FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
|
Net Patent Squabbles Increase
03:25EST
By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer 02/21/00
NEW YORK (AP) -- Returning customers can buy a book from Amazon.com with a single mouse click now that the retail giant automatically retrieves a name, address and credit card number.
Yet other sites that try one-click shopping could land in court: Amazon has a patent on the procedure.
Such proprietary claims, being sorted out in federal courts, are fueling complaints that businesses are getting overly broad Internet patents for ideas that aren't so original.
Critics say growing patent use may stymie the flow of ideas that makes the Internet so robust. And, they fear, companies worrying more about patents and less about customers could stunt Internet growth.
"If everyone focuses on ideas, they don't get as much done,'' said Stuart Wolff, chairman of Homestore.com in Thousand Oaks, Calif. "You need people out there building stuff.''
Other Internet companies consider patents an important reward. In 1990, the U.S. government granted 22 patents for inventions tied to the Internet; by 1998, the number had jumped to 2,193.
[...]